Space Pilot 3000
was the pilot episode of Futurama. It was originally broadcast on March 28, 1999. The episode introduced pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry and the story of how he came to the year 3000. Synopsis 's shadow]] On the 31st December 1999, pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry is playing the video game Donkey Fracas Jr. He loses the game and is then sent out to his next delivery at Applied Cryogenics. On his way, he sees his girlfriend Michelle in a cab with another man, Constantine. Michelle, proclaiming she's left his stuff on the sidewalk, speeds away with Constantine. Fry keeps riding his bike, saying, "I hate my life. I hate my life." He makes it into the lab where a guy outside says, "Happy New Year!" and rides away on Fry's bike. Upon arriving at the Cryogenics chamber and trying to find I.C. Weiner, the pizza's intended recipiant, Fry realises he's been duped and was sent on a crank delivery. Sitting down in a chair, he balances onto it's back legs, cracks open a beer and says, "Here's to another lousy millennium." The entire world is counting down to one on New Year's Eve and as the countdown hits "one", Fry blows a Party Horn to celebrate the new millenium. The party horn makes him lose his balance, he falls back and lands in one of the empty cryogenics tube and a strange shadow can be seen. The freezer sets itself for 1000 years and Fry is frozen. Over the course of the next thousand years the world is repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt by invading aliens as Fry waits in stasis. With a ping, Fry is released from his cryochamber and wakes up on New Year's Eve in the year 2999. With a shock he realises he is in the future and laments the loss of his family and friends but quickly dismisses his sadness with a loud "YA-HOO!" Terry, a worker at Applied Cryogenics welcomes him "to the world of tomorrow!". Fry is escorted to the Fate Assignment Officer's Office where he meets Leela, a beautiful woman with a huge eye in the center of her face, who explains that it is December 31, 2999. Talking things through with Leela, Fry confesses that the 20th century didn't hold anything for him and he feels optimistic about the future.After an encounter/examination with the Probulator, a DNA scan reveals that he has only one living relative in this time period: his many times great nephew Professor Hubert Farnsworth. Fry starts to make himself a promise that with his "second chance" he's going to make the most of his life and not mess things up again. A menacing chime brings him out of his revery as Leela reveals she's found him his permenant career asignment; delivery boy. Fry doesn't want the same job again, but Leela says that everyone, even herself, has to do a job whether they like it or not, citing that in the future '"You gotta do what you gotta do"'. She tries to implant a chip that will label Fry a delivery boy forever, but Fry runs away. Giving chase, Leela ends up falling into one of the cryogenic tubes, which sets itself for 1000 years much like Fry's tube. Fry prepares to leave her frozen there but, out of the goodness of his heart, decides to reset the tube to unthaw in 5 minutes, and leaves the lab. Walking around New New York city and seeing how much it has changed, he decides to call his descendant Farnsworth. He gets in line for what he thinks is a phone booth and meets Bender waiting in line. It turns out the phone booth is actually a suicide booth, and that Bender is eagerly awaiting his death. After accidentally activating the machine, Fry pushes Bender to the other side of the booth and they survive. Having failed at killing himself again, Bender invites Fry to get drunk with him at a bar. Meanwhile, Leela's stasis chamber is timed out ad she is unfrozen, Terry again appearing and being told to shut up. After being yelled at by her boss for losing Fry, Leela is forced to continue her pursuit of Fry. Fry finds out that Bender wants to kill himself because of his programming as a girder-bender for suicide booths. Fry convinces Bender to abandon his plans of suicide and the two become friends. Leela spots them inside O'Zorgnax's bar and after requesting backup, chases them into the head museum where Fry encounters the head of Leonard Nimoy. Fry asks Nimoy to do "the thing" but being a head in a jar, naturally he can't. Leela catches up with them and Fry and Bender run for it but knock over the shelves, on which sat Richard Nixon's jar, which breaks. The backup Leela requested earlier arrives and they start beating up Fry. Leela sees the officers are out of control and helps get them off Fry. Hiding in the back room of the museum, Bender's programming is accidentally reset when he needs to bend some bars to aid their escape. Bender and Fry run into the ruins of Old New York, where Fry has a flashback of dancing with Michelle on their first date. The memories of Fry and Michelle dancing fade into a two finned beast which bursts out the now-frozen ice. After realising that everyone he knows is gone, Bender points out that he can see someone Fry knows; Leela has found them. Giving in, Fry resigns himself to becoming a delivery boy and readys himself to have his career chip implanted but Leela instead removes hers and declaires she's quitting. They finally track down Professor Farnsworth, who clarifies that Fry is indeed his uncle. After being given a tour of Planet Express, his delivery company, all four are shocked as the police knock on the door having tracked them down. They plan to get away on the ship at the same time as the world counts down to the year 3000. As they prepare to take off the police have a cannon aimed at the Planet Express building, ready to fire at them should they try to take off. As the take-off countdown and the world countdown both reach zero, they blast off under the cover of fireworks celebrating the new millenium. Fry, Bender and Leela realise they're all fugitives as they now no longer have career chips. Professor Farnsworth reveals he has kept the career chips from his old crew and invites them to join his company. When Fry asks what his job title will be, Farnsworth tells him his job is to transport the cargo safely to it's destination. Fry clarifies that he's a delivery boy, which Farnsworth confirms. Overjoyed with his new job, the Planet Express ship flies off into the cosmos. Trivia *Leela's officer number is "1BDI" (one beady eye). *The ship of the game Monkey Fracas Jr. is similar to the Planet Express ship. *Fry's blood type is B according to Leela's computer. *In the scene with Fry and Bender hiding in the Head Museum, their heads are behind a shelf with Matt Groening's head located next to Bender's. Background Notes *This episode is the highest rated pilot episode in the history of the Fox Broadcasting Company. *In the script's rough draft, Michelle was named Janet, and Fry was Curtis Fry. It was changed to Philip in honor of Phil Hartman, who was to have been Zapp Brannigan until the event of his untimely death. *Bender takes Fry to hide inside the Head Museum saying, "It's Free on Tuesdays." December 31, 2999 will be a Tuesday. *French seems to be a dead language as inhabitants of France count in English during the countdown scene in 2999. *Originally, the first person entering the tube transport system declared "J.F.K. Jr. Airport" as his destination. After John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death in the crash of his private airplane, the line has since been re-dubbed on all subsequent broadcasts and the DVD release to Radio City Mutant Hall. Goofs * Although Fry entered the freezer at midnight on January 1, 2000, he wakes up early on December 31, 2999. There are many different explanations for this, the simplest being that the freezer clock is not accurate enough to accommodate a thousand years. A more complex (and more likely) argument involves the difference between a Gregorian year (which averages 365.2425 days per year) and a tropical year (which averages approximately 365.2422), leading to a discrepancy of 0.3 days or 7.2 hours... placing Fry's "awakening" at 4:36pm, December 31, 2999. Another possibility is that the freezer was programmed for 1000 Gregorian years, or 365242.5 days, which means he would be awakened at 12 noon on December 31, 2999, which is consistent with the daylight shown outside the window when Fry awakens. Gregorian year and Tropical year * The existence of Radio City Mutant Hall is inconsistent with the series describing mutants as needing a pass to even venture above ground. However, for example, the Washington Redskins is not a team composed of Native Americans, nor are the Vikings all Danes or Swedes; the building could well be called "Radio City Mutant Hall" to obtain a reflected glory in much the same way. * When in the bar, Bender says he doesn't need to drink. In later episodes it is said to fuel their power cells, although it could be argued he could just drink pure oil. Insane In The Mainframe * Bender bends the bars in the Criminal Room of the Head Museum. In the next scene with Bender in the foreground, the bars are back to the original position. * The Aplied Cryogenics building was in New York but above ground in New New York its possible that the tubes where moved to a new buidling in New New York * When in the head museum, after Nixon's head falls, there are two Grover Clevelands on the bottom shelf — because Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms as President of the United States. * Apu's head (from the simpsons) is seen in the head museum Debut Appearances *Bender *Dick Clark's head *Fry *Leonard Nimoy's head *Lou *Michelle *Mr. Panucci *Nibbler's shadow *Number 9 Man *Professor Farnsworth *Richard Nixon's head *Terry *Leela *Smitty *URL Alienese *There are four instances of Alienese in this episode. They say "Drink" (over the Slurm sign), "Venusians go home", and during the count down scene, "6" and "7". Footnotes Category:Season One Category:Episodes